Pornography Breeds Violence

By Amy Schuman

Two studies presented last month at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association support longstanding feminist assertions that violent pornography contributes directly to male violence against women. Just last week, the FBI reported that rape increased by 13.2 percent in 1979 over the previous year. The studies indicate that increased availability and acceptance of violent pornography must be a factor in the rise of anti-woman violence.

In one experiment, men who watched films depict-

ing sexual violence against women administered more electric shocks to female partners than did those who had watched nonviolent sexual films. After viewing the films, there also was more aggression toward women partners than toward male partners.

In the other study, two films were chosen "because they portray violence against women as having justification and positive consequences". One film showed a violent man and a woman who learns to crave sexual sadism, and the other showed a woman who falls in love with a man who raped her. A full

Police Brutality Okay to Gays?

The Department of Justice has been asked to explain the absence of "sexual orientation” in a regulation issued by the department to ban police agencies from inflicting physical abuse or summary punishment because of race, color, religion, national origin

or sex.

In a letter to Associate Attorney General John H. Shenefield, National Gay Task Force (NGTF) Co-

(

In times like these, We have to PROTECT the rights of American citizens by TAKING THEM AWAY

UBERATION NEWS SERVICE

ply avery/Peoples Alliance

Executive Directors Charles F. Brydon and Lucia Valeska said, "We are disturbed by this omission in light of the history of adverse police-gay community relations in too many communities throughout the country. In 1978, the NGTF Co-Director Jean O'Leary testified before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission on this problem. More recently our staff has been in touch with the Department's Task Force on Police Use of Deadly Force and the Civil Rights Division, the latter concerning specific incidents of police brutality in Houston, Oklahoma City and most recently Sarasota, Florida. Therefore, we are troubled by this omission." Mr. Shenefield is asked to investigate the reason for the omission and to promptly take steps to correct the regulation. NGTF is asking every gay person who is a victim of

police brutality to report the incident to the local office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and to NGTF (call or write Tom Burrows, NGTF, 80 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011; 212/741-5800). NGTF will monitor reported cases of police brutality through the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department to see that the complaint receives the attention it deserves throughout the investigative process. "We know that complaints are the key element in our effort to focus federal attention on police abuse of gay people/' commented NGTF's Tom Burrows. "So far both the FBI and the Justice Department have been very cooperative and we urge gay people who have a legitimate complaint to act. It is in their interest and for the benefit of all of us."

School Homophobia

The National Gay Task Force (NGTF) filed a class action suit October 14 against a 1978 Oklahoma law prohibiting the employment of lesbians, gay men and gay rights supporters in the public school system. Known as the "Helms Bill," the law is similar to a 1978 statewide initiative in California that was soundly defeated,

"The Helms Bill is a patently discriminatory piece of legislation that singles out lesbians and gay men and any school employee associating with us for harassment and abuse," stated NGTF co-director Lucia Valeska at an October 14 news conference. "It is an attack on every school employee's fundamental livelihood, especially those who are gay, and we cannot allow this law to remain unchallenged." Stephen Parrish of Gay Rights Advocates, which is representing the plaintiffs along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma, said that the law "created a severe chilling effect that inhibits teachers and other employees from participating in organizations or political campaigns in which gay rights is an issue." The law, Parrish noted, “is clearly a violation of constitutional rights and must be struck down by the courts."

ERA Brainwash by Mormons

(HerSay)-Civil disobedience may be what's needed to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, according to a fifth-generation Mormon activist. Cheryl Dalton is a 33-year-old schoolteacher from Cupertino, California, and a Mormon. Earlier this month, Dalton and another Mormon woman stood up before a Church Assembly and denounced Spencer Kimball, the head of the Mormon religion, for his opposition to the Amendment.

Dalton has charged in a speech to the National Women's Political Caucus that Mormons are brainwashed by Church hierarchy to oppose the Amendment. She cited a study done by the Church which showed 65 percent of Mormons oppose the ERA. However, when churchmembers were asked if they

Page 4/What She Wants/November, 1980

-The Guardian October 29, 1980

favored a constitutional amendment which would give equal rights to people regardless of sex, 55 percent of the Mormons said they would favor it.

As a result of what she terms. "patriarchy" within the church, Dalton said strong Mormon women "have nowhere to go." To get the ERA passed, she said, "We must be willing to pay the price, and if that means using civil disobedience, so be it."

Last summer, incidentally, another Mormon activist, Sonia Johnson, along with a Catholic nun, Maureen Fiedler, and ten other women chained themselves to the office of the Republican National Committee to protest the party's decision to abandon the pro-ERA platform plank.

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week after viewing the films, males scored higher on measures of interpersonal violence than did males who viewed nonviolent films. Acceptance of the rape myth, measured by response to the statement "Many women have an unconscious wish to be raped, and may unconsciously set up a situation in which they are likely to be attacked," was also higher in male viewers of these violent films.

These studies cast grave doubts on the conclusions reached in 1970 by the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, that pornography is not a cause of anti-social behavior. Their conclusions allowed the growth of a multi-million dollar business, and permitted the development of pornography into the violent genre it is today. Hopefully, these recent studies will lead to a rapid change in our national pornography policy.

-Information obtained from The New York Times and The Guardian

NCC Scolds CBS

The National News Council has concluded that CBS News was unfair in its coverage of a number of issues that comprised a substantial portion of its program "CBS Reports: Gay Power, Gay Politics" broadcast over the CBS television network April 26, 1980. The NNC at its September 18, 1980 meeting acted on complaints filed by NGTF, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission and Mr. Randy Alfred, a freelance journalist based in that city.

In analyzing and investigating the complaints against CBS, the NNC staff grouped the more than 40 points of complaint into three major issues: 1) The Campaign Issue-the allegation that CBS overstated the importance of Mayor Feinstein's apology for her comment on the gays and their relationship to community standards; 2) The Sexual Issue-this includes the treatment of Buena Vista Park; sadomasochism, the Halloween Party on Castro Street, the Human Rights Foundation's program in the schools to demystify homosexuality, and the Beaux Arts Ball sequence; 3) The Applause Issue-a charge that CBS had inserted applause after Mayor Feinstein's "apology" at the Harvey Milk Democratic Club meeting.

The complaint that CBS overstated the significance of Mayor Feinstein's "apology" was found to be "unwarranted" by the NNC. On point three, the Applause Issue, CBS News admitted that it had inserted applause where there was none after the mayor's apology. In the most complex section covering Sexual Issues, the National News Council found the complaints against CBS News warranted: "By concentrating on certain flamboyant examples of homosexual behavior, the program tended to reinforce stereotypes. The program also exaggerated political concessions to gays and made those concessions appear as threats to public morals and decency."

National Gay Task Force Co-Executive Directors Charles F. Brydon and Lucia Valeska said of the National News Council findings: "We filed this complaint confident that CBS had been unfair and had distorted San Francisco's gay political and educational activities. By and large we are pleased with the Council findings."

Unemployment for Mothers?

(HerSay)-California's high court has agreed to hear a complaint that housewives who leave work to take care of children should get unemployment benefits. If the court agrees with Betty Ann Boren, who sought the hearing, 100,000 California housewives could pick up more than $70 million in back unemployment payments.